UK man survives jump into Hoover Dam

(Source: KVVU) A man visiting Las Vegas from North Wales jumped into the Hoover Dam and successfully swam from the Arizona side to the Nevada side.

HOOVER DAM (KVVU/MEREDITH) - A man visiting Las Vegas from North Wales jumped into the Hoover Dam and successfully swam from the Arizona side to the Nevada side.

“It’s a story we’ll tell for ages,” 28-year-old Arron Hughes said.

Hughes said he was visiting Las Vegas and the surrounding areas for a bachelor party.

“There was a lot of drinking,” Hughes said.

When Hughes and his crew of friends visited Lake Mead back in August, he recalled triple digit temperatures.

“It was hot, so I jumped in the water,” Hughes said.

Hughes said he scaled down the rocks in a restricted area, and took a dip on the Lake Mead side of the dam.

“As soon as I jumped in the water I thought: ‘I can make this,' so I decided I’m going for it.’”

It took Hughes about 45 minutes to swim from the Arizona side to the Nevada side. He was arrested and fined $330.

“This is the first time I’ve seen this,” Regional Special Agent for the Bureau of Reclamation Ian Canaan said. Canaan has worked in the bureau's Lower Colorado region, where the Hoover Dam is located, for two years.

“The people who have worked here for their entire lives don’t recall a time when someone swam across the top of the dam either,” Canaan said.

Canaan also explained the risks of swimming in restricted areas.

“We have no means of rescuing someone in an expeditious manner (in a restricted area),” Canaan said.

Canaan said the nearest safety boat is 30 minutes away from the restricted area where Hughes swam.

Canaan also said on an average summer day, there are 17 main turbines in the Hoover power plant working at full capacity.

“I can’t tell you at the surface, if there is a turbulence or water ,that would be anymore dangerous than anywhere else. But certainly those are the intake towers for all the generators at hoover dam,” Canaan said.